WIT was one of twenty leading universities and more than 70 partner organisations that came together to form Averroès 4, enabling university and scientific exchanges between European countries (Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and Ireland) and the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia).

Co-ordinated by the University of Montpellier II, Averroès was funded by the European Commission within the framework of Erasmus Mundus. By the end of 2012, more than 1,000 people undertook research or study abroad through the programme.

Through this programme, bursaries for academic excellence made the journey across the Mediterranean possible. For each year of this programme, there were more than 300 recipients: students (at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral level); young researchers (doctoral and post-doctoral level); and university personnel. The period spent abroad varied from one month for academic staff to 18 months for doctoral students.

The consortium Averroès 4 comprised 20 partner universities
Nine of these were situated in the European Union

Belgium:
University of Liège

France:

University of Nice
University Montpellier I
University Montpellier II
University Montpellier III

Tunisia:
University of Gabès
University of Sousse
University of Tunis el Manar

74 associate partners
Prominent institutions and socio-economic actors such as public authorities, companies, local councils, associations and regional ministries
Higher education institutions such as Algiers’ National Polytechnic, Montpellier Sup’Agro and the Universities of Cadix, Rabat and Monastir
Research organisations including Agropolis International, CIRAD, Sfax Biotechnology Centre
International organisations such as the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie

Appliactions are now closed but for further information on Erasmus Mundus please contact the project co-ordinator, Don O'Neill at [email protected]

Waterford Institute of Technology was a partner in the COMPERE-Averroès (COMpétence Projets Européens REseau Averroès) project funded by the European Commission TEMPUS programme. The project ran from December 2013 to July 2017 and provided staff from North African universities (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) with the skills necessary to apply for EU funding and work as EU project coordinators and partners for the period 2014-2020 (Erasmus+ and H2020 in particular).

The COMPERE-Averroès project comprised a consortium of 15 North African partner institutions (universities, research institutes in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, including 3 government ministries) and 6 European higher education institutions.

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) was a principal partner in the Erasmus Mundus Alyssa Project for Tunisia. This project named after Alyssa the first Queen of Carthage investigated academic mobility at all levels (Undergraduate, Postgraduate and PhD) across a number of disciplines including Food Science, Geo Sciences, Economics, Languages, Public Administration, Engineering, Mathematics and Information Technology.

The partnership was composed of higher education institutions from Tunisia and Europe (France, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Sweden) and was co-ordinated by the University of Montpellier 2 and the University of Tunis el Manar. The €2m project was considered very significant because it is the first time in the history of the EU, that the European Commission targeted a single country under the Erasmus Mundus Scheme.

The general aim of Erasmus Mundus is to encourage European education in the world. It offers scholarships funded by the European Union targeted at students from non-EU countries who wish to study in Europe and students from EU countries who wish to study outside Europe in partner universities. WIT was the only Irish HEI partner involved in this historic project and Ms. Sinead Day, International Affairs Manager at WIT and Project Co-ordinator represented WIT at the official launch of Project Alyssa in Tunis on 30 October 2013. There were 3 Calls to the project involving student and staff mobility with partner meetings in France and North Africa over the 4 year duration of this project.